AWN Blogs

This summer was surely the summer of sequels, three-quels and in some cases quad-quels. I don't have any particular objection to sequels, especially in the action/adventure category, because you set good heroes on new adventures. As long as the story doesn't spin its wheels then it can still be fun. Look at the James Bond series. Last year's CASINO ROYALE is one of the best Bond films ever made.

However, this summer we got a lot of passable to poor sequels. Just peruse this list SPIDER-MAN 3, 28 WEEKS LATER, SHREK THE THIRD, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END, HOSTEL PART II, OCEAN'S THIRTEEN, FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER, EVAN ALMIGHTY, LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD, HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, DADDY DAY CAMP and RUSH HOUR 3. One could also add remakes like THE INVASION (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS) and HALLOWEEN to this déjà vu cinema experience as well. Is this a sign of the lack of new ideas in Hollywood or the lack of nerve to film new ideas in Hollywood?

THE CONVERSATION is a film that I have seen twice. I wasn't all that impressed with it the first time I saw it, but considering its reputation I decided to give it a second viewing. For whatever reason sometimes certain films don't hit you the first time, but then startle you the second time around. This is the same experience I had with DR. STRANGELOVE (now one of my favorite films) and David Gordon Green's GEORGE WASHINGTON. I believe the pacing of Francis Ford Coppola's thriller is part of why this happened. I think upon my first viewing, I was beguiled by the slow build and missed the point of the ending. Upon seeing it again, I was beguiled by the unique anti-hero unlike any seen elsewhere on screen and an ending that blew me away with its depth and style.

Danny Boyle's 2002 28 DAYS LATER was a hardcore revamp of the zombie genre, viscerally brought to life in a star making turn by Cillian Murphy. Produced by Boyle, the sequel is under the leadership of new filmmakers. Writer/director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo made his English debut on the film, which was co-written by Rowan Joffe, Jesus Olmo and E.L. Lavigne. It's a tale of two stories; the first half is filled with dark irony, while the second half is a chase flick copying what George Romero did in THE CRAZIES.

The story begins where the first film begins, but following new characters. Donald and Alice Harris (Robert Carlyle, TRAINSPOTTING & Catherine McCormack, DANGEROUS BEAUTY) are holed up in a cottage in England, hiding from an outbreak that turns humans into crazed flesh-eaters. But when the zombies strike, wrong choices are made. In a montage, the film lays out what has transpired for the past 28 weeks since this event. The population of England has died off. U.S. led NATO forces have taken over the country. Survivors have been rounded up into a single section in London and refugees have started to be reintegrated into the military occupied U.K. Major Scarlet (Rose Byrne, WICKER PARK) is the chief medical officer, who worries that though they haven't seen an infected person in two months that the disease might come back. Gen. Stone (Idris Elba, AMERICAN GANGSTER) is sure the soldiers can handle another outbreak if it comes. Sgt. Doyle (Jeremy Renner, DAHMER) and helicopter pilot Flynn (Harold Perrineau, ROMEO + JULIET) find their patrols of virtually dead city quite boring. However, when a new outbreak does come, chaos quickly takes over and it seems that the Harris' children Andy and Tammy (Mackintosh Muggleton, film debut & Imogen Poots, V FOR VENDETTA) might be the key to saving humanity.

Classic literature is mined for teen films quite often. How many ROMEO AND JULIETs in high school have we seen? Director Amy Heckerling (FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH) based CLUELESS on Jane Austen's EMMA and infused it with hip Beverly Hills glamour and slang. As for teen versions of classic lit, this is about as good as it gets.

Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone, LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST) is the prototypical dumb blonde, it seems. She obsesses about clothes, boys and the here and now. Along with best friend Dionne (Stacey Dash, RENAISSANCE MAN) and Dionne's boyfriend Murray (Donald Faison, TV's SCRUBS), they make it their mission to transform New York City transplant Tai (Brittany Murphy, DEAD GIRL) into the next cast member of BEVERLY HILLS 90210. Cher deeply disapproves of Tai's initial choice of boys — a tokin' skater named Travis (Breckin Meyer, GARFIELD). She tries to find Tai a more suitable suitor like the hottie Elton (Jeremy Sito, TV's SIX FEET UNDER). While she is playing matchmaker, Cher sets her eyes on the new boy in school Christian (Justin Walker). All along, Cher's former stepbrother and law student Josh (Paul Rudd, KNOCKED UP) watches Cher's manipulations with a wry smile, injecting a sardonic comment from time to time as he helps Cher's father Mel (Dan Hedaya, THE HURRICANE) work on a big lawsuit.

This brilliant spoof of alien abduction stories is the first film from famed soundman Gary Rydstrom. Of course, the sound is perfect, but Rydstrom translates his sound skills to make a hilarious short with perfect timing.

In the story, teen alien Stu must look over a huge board of switches to lift a deeply slumbering farmer from his bed. For each mistake, the looming glutinous supervisor, Mr. B, scribbles down notes on a clip board. Will Stu succeed or will be lose his cool?

Rydstrom's timing and pacing is impeccable. For all intents and purposes, the film is a single joke, however it's still funny upon repeated viewings. The slapstick is perfectly combined with character. Stu's reactions are wonderfully exaggerated. There is a classic squash and stretch cartoon vibe to this short, which is a landmark for CG animation. The character design is also superb. The gelatin-like bodies of the aliens are unique. Stu with his oversized helmet adds to the character's emotions and personalities. You get a quick sense that he is young and inexperienced just by his look, while you sense the opposite from the stoic Mr. B.

With its three previous shorts featuring dialogue, Pixar goes back to its tradition of no dialogue shorts with this entertaining production. Directed and written by Mark Andrews and Andrew Jimenez, the film relies on music strongly to tell its simple story.

Bass is a busker who plays various percussion instruments all at once. A young girl named Tippy comes to the courtyard where Bass performs to make a wish in the fountain. So Bass plays her a tune to earn her coin instead. But then Treble, a one-man string section, shows up to lure the little girl away. Each musician will pull out all the stops to convince Tippy that they deserve her lone gold piece.

With its piazza and period setting, this short has a worldly style that is new to Pixar shorts. Like many the Pixar shorts, the story is simple, but what makes it fun is the great gags that the filmmakers come up with. The directors worked closely with the composer to come up with the music, which is key. The tunes work as the voices of the characters, helping build their personalities. Bass is subtly built as a tired veteran performer, while Treble is flashier and comes off as a bit of a shyster.

Writer/director Bud Luckey, who is best known at Pixar for designing TOY STORY's Woody, makes a singularly original short in the canon of the studio. The tone skews unapologetically young and old fashioned. The tale is told in song and springs forward with a moral unlike any other film from Pixar.

A young sheep dances proudly with his impressive coat of wool. However, when he is sheered and left in the rain, everyone around can't help to laugh at the pathetic sight. Then along comes the mythical creature, the jackalope, who teaches the young lamb that life will have its ups and its downs and all you have to do is bound and rebound.

The design work on this Oscar nominated short is bright to the point of adding energy to the story. It also features some amazingly subtle animation that wonderfully captures the emotions of the poor little lamb. The animators wonderfully balance the lamb's bravado at the start and his sheepishness (couldn't help myself) once his white coat is gone. The message of taking life's problems in stride is full of optimism, which in our cynical age is quite striking. Luckey was inspired to make the film from the image of a newly shorn lamp, which was an image ingrained in his mind since his childhood on the Great Plains. The film is sentimental, but in a good way.

Making it two in a row, FOR THE BIRDS won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short for this simple and quite funny cartoon. Like GERI'S GAME, the short was a technical experiment. This time the Pixar wizards were testing realistic feathers. And also like GERI'S GAME, the technical never gets in the way of story.

A flock of small, plump birds begin to perch on a telephone wire. Then a large bird lands on the telephone pole and dopily waves to the feathered clique, who can't help but make fun of her. However, their rudeness finally lays their true personalities bare in the end.

Truly past technical constraints at this point, the film, directed by Ralph Eggleston, is bright and colorful. The design work nicely conveys the personalities of the characters. Four of the birds have names — Chipper, Bully, Snob and Neurotic. That says it all. With a nice subtly, one can easily pick out which bird is which via their actions. It’s that kind of attention to detail that makes the film special. A lesser filmmaker would have made the flock of birds one collective personality, however Eggleston adds nuance to each of the callous feathered foursome. FOR THE BIRDS is a crowd pleaser that proves that when it comes to story sometimes, simplicity can work wonders.

KNICK KNACK is a transitional film in the history of Pixar for many reasons. It was the last short before the company moved onto its first feature film TOY STORY. It also stands as the first of their shorts that doesn't seem to be a product of tackling any certain technical challenge. Writer/director John Lasseter was making a film for the joy of it, and we can tell.

On a shelf of various knickknacks from different vacation spots, a snowman trapped in a snow globe looks on jealously as fellow knickknacks from sunnier locales relax and party. A blonde from Miami beckons the snowman to join them, but all his attempts to free himself end in disaster. When he finally finds an exit plan, things don't turn out as he would have hoped.

In their third CG animated short, Pixar started to go more ambitious. John Lasseter and his team had the lighting challenge of setting the story at night, expanded on the detail of the locations, attempt liquids (which are still difficult) and expanded the score of the story by doubling the running time. As for story, it's their first short that has a fully developed theme. However, some bad character design with their first organic character dates the film and serves to distract the audience from the more fleshed out plot.

It's a rainy night. Eben's Bikes is having a sale. Red, a lonely unicycle, sits in the corner with 50% off tag. He dreams of getting bought and performing in a circus act. In his dream, he works with the juggling clown Lumpy, and actually goes on to outshine his human operator.

More of an experiment than a short film, THE ADVENTURES OF ANDRE & WALLY B was Pixar's first CG animated short. It was made when Pixar was still part of Lucasfilms. The short was first CG work for Pixar head and TOY STORY director John Lasseter, who was restricted by only being allowed to use geometric shapes to build his characters and sets. Alvy Ray Smith, who was a computer graphics artist on 1982's STAR TREK: WRATH OF KHAN, is credited as the film's writer.

As for the story, Andre is a wide-eyed fellow with a big black nose, who is just waking up from a nap in the forest. Wally, a bee, begins to taunt him. Andre distracts Wally and makes run for it. The 3D animation is dated by current standards and the sound design is awkwardly integrated. Much of the sound is standard cartoony sound effects. To their credit, even in this early example of CG, the Pixar artists were skilled in bringing personality to their characters. Andre clearly has a Bugs Bunny vibe. As a historical document it's amazing to see the advances that have been made in computer animation since 1984. Any true animation fan should check this out. Those just looking for entertainment will be disappointed.

Jerry Seinfeld's big return is a B- at best. It's like honey sweet, satisfying, but it's not something that goes to your head. Even more so than Pixar's RATATOUILLE, this is an animated film for adults, which is not a negative comment in the least. Visually the little ones might find some of the sillier or more brightly colored moments entertaining, but most of it will buzz right over their heads. Where the film really succeeds is in creating its world. The parallels between the bee world and the human world are at times ingenious.

Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld) has just graduated from college. Because of their short life span, bees only have to go for three days. Barry and his best friend Adam Flayman (Matthew Broderick, ELECTION) go off to their first day at the hive, where they have to choose one job to do for the rest of their lives. This idea scares Barry, who decides to head out into the outside world to see what is out there. Along his journey, he ends up almost swatted by the brutish Ken (Patrick Warburton, TV's THE TICK) if it were not for the pretty florist Vanessa (Renee Zellweger, BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY). Barry breaks bee law and talks to Vanessa to thank her for saving his life. Quickly, Barry is smitten by Vanessa, and on a trip to the grocery store, he discovers the truth about human's theft of honey. So with the help of Vanessa, Barry decides to sue the human race.